Aerosmith gets own Guitar Hero game

Activision has revealed plans to base an entire instalment in the Guitar Hero series around popular American beat combo Aerosmith.

It's pencilled in for June and will be available on PS3, 360, Wii and PS2.

To celebrate, the publisher will offering 'Dream On' by Aerosmith on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network this weekend.

"It's cool for us to be pioneers helping to rebuild the music industry through a format like video games," said Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry. "It's great for rock since the record companies are struggling to make sense of how things are changing.

"Fans want to get and experience music in new formats - and there are going to be some of them who will play the game, then pick up the guitar for real and start bands. It's what's happening now, and it's only going to build more momentum in the future. It's a massive change for the music business."

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith will have you playing as guitarists Joe Perry, Brad Whitford and bassist Tom Hamilton. Just like all the other instalments you will go from unknown to rock legend, but this time follow the story of the band and their memories of some stand out venues.

It won't just be Aerosmith music in the game, either, with Activision promising songs from other artists that inspired the ageing US rock band.

Aerosmith has been around for 38 years. The band found mainstream fame with its 1975 album Toys in the Attic. Then there were drugs. Then two members left. Then they came back again. And in 1987 things started to pick up to where we are now: four Grammy awards and ten Video Music Awards.

"Any band that can go from 'Don't Want to Miss A Thing' to the ass-kicking 'Sweet Emotion' to the cheekiness of 'Love in an Elevator' to the classic ballad 'Dream On' shows why Activision chose us to headline this game based on the diversity of the Aerosmith catalogue," said rubber-lipped singer Steve Tyler, living it up whilst going down.

Bertie is a senior staff writer, which doesn't mean he's old, although he is, a bit. He's part of the furniture here and reports on all kinds of things, the stranger the better. He's a bit odd but then who isn't? @Clert on Twitter.